The Senate GOP will need to produce a bill that can claim to have significantly changed Obamacare, achieve at least the same amount of cost savings as the House bill did through the budgetary reconciliation process, and that will be able to garner support in both the Senate and the House. The Senate will also need to fix the simple fact that the age-adjusted, fixed-dollar tax credits to subsidize insurance coverage in the AHCA are too simple and insensitive to the income-related health needs of lower income Americans.
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GOP senators say they’re discussing a possible short-term bill if their health care talks drag on. It might include money to help stabilize shaky insurance markets with subsidies to reduce out-of-pocket costs for low-earning people and letting states offer less expensive policies. It’s unclear Democrats would offer their needed cooperation, but Republicans are talking about it. “We’ve discussed quite a bit the possibility of a two-step process,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. “In 2018 and ’19, we’d basically be a rescue team to make sure people can buy insurance.”
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